HKDI Gallery

Italy has long been a powerhouse in the world of design, influencing various fields from furniture and fashion to automotive design and architecture. Marble holds a special place in Italian design due to Italy's abundant high-quality marble quarries, the country's artistic excellence, and the influential figures who have worked with the stone, such as Michelangelo and Bernini.

In this workshop, we will explore the rich design history of Italy and delve into how marble has become a symbol of Italian craftsmanship, elegance, and enduring design excellence. We will investigate techniques used to replicate marble's appearance and apply them to other materials, scales, and contexts, enabling you to develop your own innovative and distinctive designs.

Get ready to be inspired by the beauty and versatility of marble as we embark on this exciting journey of Italian design exploration. Together, we will uncover the secrets of Italian craftsmanship and create designs that reflect the enduring legacy of Italian design excellence!

“ITALY: A New Collective Landscape” is a response to the enduring “ITALY: The New Domestic Landscape” – a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) displayed in New York in 1972. The exhibition platforms 100 Italian designers all under 35 who attempt to grapple with the challenges of the current global moment, and at the same time explore the pluralistic possibilities of design.

Attend the guided tour to probe extensively through all kinds of design objects, from furniture to clothing, apps to prints, and more. Led by award-winning Architect Dennis Cheung, who is steeped in Italian design sensibilities, the tour guides attendees through the three design virtues highlighted by the exhibition – systemic, relational, and regenerative, and offers valuable insight into the meaning behind each category, as well as explicating the future each design object proffers. Don’t miss out on this eye-opening opportunity, register now to secure your slot.

Mr Dennis Cheung, Founding Partner of Studio RYTE

Dennis is a Registered Architect based in Hong Kong with a strong focus on digital fabrication and material innovation. He envisions a sustainable future for the built environment by marrying new technology with traditional craftsmanship. Dennis graduated from the University of Hong Kong and obtained his Master in Architecture in MIT. He received numerous awards including the American Institute of Architect’s Sustainable Design Award, Perspective’s 40Under40 Award, ARCASIA’s Young Architect Award, and Sina’s New Power Interior Design Award. He currently teaches Design+ at the University of Hong Kong as an adjunct assistant professor.

Dennis’s exposure to Italian design began from his master study at MIT where he worked on two smart city projects with the municipality of Venice, and his study on classical Italian urbanism with Michael Dennis. He later worked in the Veneto region and led a Northern Italian architecture tour for the master students at the University of Hong Kong. Together with his team, Studio RYTE has exhibited three times at SaloneSatellite in Salone del Mobile (where they received the 2nd prize of the SaloneSatellite Award in 2023), two times in Milan Design Week and one time at the Architecture Biennale in Venice.

Systemic design studies the causal and retroactive connections between events in order to understand, prevent and influence them with the least possible number of interventions. By applying this thought to everyday objects, whether we look at energy efficiency or at the extension of the life cycle of resources already in circulation, the contributions present in this area intervene on different scales but always in relation to each other – from the domestic to the local up to the global – for an optimisation of some or all parts of the systems to which they belong: from the supply and use of resources to the promotion of sustainable and circular development models. These are projects that create a virtuous network of possible and synergistic relationships between object and infrastructure, between flows of material, energy and know-how, often perceived according to a dualistic logic. 

Relational Design radiates the idea that design has always been and continues to be a social practice. Here the contributions act as tools for fostering community and interdependence, introducing concepts such as equality, collaboration, human and non-human coexistence – always understood as collective practices from which real alternatives to models of consolidated social functioning emerge.  

Challenging the classic mechanics of the exhibition format, the Play, Read and Watch areas offer the public opportunities for exchange and interaction, and the gallery welcomes you to re-enter the exhibition whenever you wish. Coordinated by Parasite 2.0, some designers have co-designed elements that are part of the set-up. Others, on the other hand, have designed programmes of meetings as part of the public programme. 

Considering that the built environment and production processes can have a positive and regenerative impact, the collected projects range from contextual design – underlining the commitment of many designers towards understanding the realities in which they operate, forms of activism and possible constructive responses to extreme climate events – up to a library of new materials and bio-materials as alternative models to development, where design performs as a practice aimed at facilitating the ecological transition.  

The change of direction is quite radical: not only does it include considerations on supply and disposal with the aim of applying the principles of the circular economy, but in the best case scenario it implements metabolic systems that restore, renew or revitalise the resources used. These resilient and equitable interventions are able to integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature.